Ferrari V8 gallops to victory – again
BY RON HAMMERTON | 6th Jun 2018
FERRARI’S spine-tingling 3.9-litre bi-turbo V8 has cleaned up the International Engine of the Year award for a record-equalling third consecutive year.
The latest iteration of the three-year-old engine from the Ferrari 488 accrued a record 486 points from the judges to blow away the next best powerplant, Porsche 911’s 3.0-litre turbo flat six, by 288 points.
And just to underline Ferrari’s engineering abilities, the Prancing Horse’s new 6.5-litre V12 from the 812 Superfast came third in the 20th year of the awards.
After giving the Ferrari V8 the nod for the two previous years after the engine debuted in the 488 GTB, the judges for the 2018 award were won over all over again by tweaks to the engine that added another 85kW of power and 10Nm of torque, taking its peak power to a whopping 530kW and 770Nm in the new 488 Pista.
This output places the V8 at the top of its class in terms of specific output, churning out 136kW per litre as it spins to 8000rpm.
The V8 also won the performance car and 3.0-to-4.0-litre engine categories to take its haul of category wins to an impressive 10 in three years.
Announcing the achievement, awards co-chairman Dean Slavnich said the Ferrari engine set the bar so high it swept rivals aside.
“Redeveloped and tweaked for the 488 Pista, the best engine in the world just got better,” he said. “Without doubt, we’re looking at an engineering masterclass from Ferrari. No turbo lag, beautiful delivery, raw emotion, a furious growl and so much power – this Ferrari V8 is a work of art.”
The only other engine to win the top gong three years in a row is Ford’s 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost that does duty in a variety of Ford small cars.
Porsche cleaned up two categories, taking the 1.8-2.0-litre award with its four-cylinder 2.0-litre turbo from the Boxster and Cayman, along with the next up 2.5-3.0-litre segment with its 3.0-litre flat-six turbo from the 911.
The best new engine was nominated as the Ferrari V12, which also took the award for the biggest engine category above 4.0-litres.
European car-makers made a clean sweep of the 12 categories – almost – with only Tesla’s electric powertrain breaking the Euro stranglehold by winning the electric and green engine awards.
Still flinching from its dieselgate affair, Volkswagen made a comeback to the winner’s circle by winning the important new sub-1.0-litre category with its 999cc petrol three cylinder that it uses across its small-car line-up.
However, VW had to play second-fiddle to rival PSA Group in the one-step higher 1.0-1.4-litre category in which the French company’s 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine took the top step of the podium ahead of two VW 1.4-litre three-cylinder units.
While BMW (1.4-1.8L) and Audi (2.0-2.5L) won a category each Mercedes-Benz missed out, having to settle for a couple of placings.
